Women 5'1"-5'3" - How many calories do you eat to lose weight?

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sikorski
sikorski Posts: 57 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Hi. I'm 5'1" , 70. I tried for AGES to lose weight eating 1000 calories, the recommended lowest number for women. The best I could do was maintain. I was at a plateau for at least 6 months. In September I decided to lower my calorie count to 850-900 and started to lose. I've lost eight pounds so far. That's very slow weight loss, about 2 pounds a month, but I'm happy that I'm finally seeing a downward trend!

I think there should be a different daily calorie goal for petite women.

Shorter women, how many calories do you eat to lose weight gradually and safely? I'm not talking about crash diets. Are you all really having success at 1000 calories or 1200 calories? If I ate 1200 calories a day I'd gain weight, no matter how much exercise I do.
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Replies

  • nooshi713
    nooshi713 Posts: 4,877 Member
    edited December 2020
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    I’m 38, 5’0”, and how much I eat depends on how active I am. I have maintained food diaries for years and have years of data on myself.

    Some days I am more sedentary (3000-4000) steps. On those days I maintain at 1450 so I eat 1200 on those days.

    Some days I am more active (7000-12000) steps. On those days, I maintain between 1700-1900 calories per day so eat between 1300-1500.

    I have read that if you have more than 20 lbs to lose that you should be able to lose at a rate of 1lb per week. I still have 30 lbs to lose so try to eat 500 calories below maintenance, sometimes only 250 below.

    I fear getting older and maintaining at an even lower level. I imagine if I’m lighter I will require less calories also. Everyone says not to go below 1200 but some older, shorter women do maintain at very low levels. For those women, they may have to eat below 1200 and lose very slowly. I would recommend vitamin supplements for those people. That’s what I plan to do if I have to as I get older.
  • elmusho1989
    elmusho1989 Posts: 321 Member
    edited December 2020
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    5 foot 3 here, sedentary losing half pound per week. Mfp has me on 1540 calories a day and it's been working slowly but surely for the last month. I'm 11 stone 10 pounds aiming for 9 to 10 stone.
  • LiftandSkate
    LiftandSkate Posts: 148 Member
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    I'm 5'3". I use the GW x 12 calculation to arrive at 1640 cal/day, and I lose on that. This calculation assumes you exercise 5x/week. If you exercise less or not at all, your calculation would probably be closer to GW x 10 or 11.

    I'm going to assume everyone else already told you that eating 1000 cal/day is not adequate or sustainable for most people.
  • AshHeartsJesus
    AshHeartsJesus Posts: 460 Member
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    That is just bad low 😦 what does your diet consist of? Do you really want to spend the last 10-15 years of your lifestarving and miserable 😳
  • glassyo
    glassyo Posts: 7,592 Member
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    It completely sucks to be an older, shorter, petite woman which is why I'm very vocal about exercising so I can eat.
  • claireychn074
    claireychn074 Posts: 1,330 Member
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    @sikorski the good news is your metabolism doesn’t slow down as you get older - we just generally tend to move a bit less (maybe not running after kids, not walking as much etc) and we may also start to lose muscle mass. So both of those can be improved, there are some great threads on here about improving your NEAT or incorporating more activity into your daily life. And building muscle means you need more calories for daily life. It’s not magically going to mean you can eat 2000 cals and lose but it will get you a few extra every day and has other health benefits 😀
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
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    mnbvcxzlkjhgfdsa12 wrote: »
    I’m 5”2 and have to eat around 1100 a day to lose about half a pound a week, I am not very active and maintain at about 1300 a day.

    It’s unpopular on this forum to even suggest that you might consider eating less than 1200, although I’d argue that 1000 calories of well considered healthy choices is a better option nutrient-wise than 2000 calories of Ben and Jerry’s/cake etc. I guess what I’m trying to say is that we all need to eat enough to fuel or bodies, and that should be the number 1 priority. But what is right for most people isn’t also categorically what’s right for everyone all the time.

    If you are losing half a lb/week, I wouldn't say your cals are too low (I ran mine and if sedentary at 120, 5'3, and 50, my own age and goal weight, but one at which some might want to lose more, my TDEE would be estimated to be 1360, so it's possible). At that weight, personally, the only way I've lost or maintained weight was being reasonably active.

    However, apart from the fact that no one eats 2000 cals of B&J (and no one eating a diet filled with low nutrient items and not the opposite is unaware they aren't eating especially healthfully), it's actually challenging to get everything on 1100 cals, no matter what you eat (and a pretty good variety of nutrient dense foods are required). I've eaten a healthful diet on 1200, but I do find it much easier on 1500 -- I've learned this by logging at Cron, and I am someone who knows a good amount about nutrition and prioritizes it.

    Again, not saying that a deficit of 250 cals/day is unreasonable, but I would probably be more careful with my diet to make sure there aren't gaps, since those extra 300-500 or so cals actually do often make a difference, IME.

    Of course, if this is a pretty short-term thing, it's not such a big deal.
  • shirazum2023
    shirazum2023 Posts: 54 Member
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    I am 4 feet 11, an inch shorter from 5 feet. I used to eat around 1500-1600 calories when I was sedentary and not working out at a 104 lbs weight. I now sit somewhere between 95-98 lbs, trying to increase my steps count to 5000+ steps and working out regularly. I am eating close to 1900-2100 calories now. I am not trying to lose weight but not gain anymore either reason being the relative strength doesn't increase as fast in my case and its easier for me to lift myself being lighter. I am doing calisthenics. Push ups, pull ups, dips. What's working for me is increasing my NEAT. I now move more, take stairs, walk to the park, play with my pets more, and I eat volume dense food. Keeps me satisfied, gives me more energy to workout.
  • Mouse_Potato
    Mouse_Potato Posts: 1,495 Member
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    I am 5'3" and ~115 pounds. 46 years old. I am *very* active now that I'm home all the time, so my daily numbers won't help you much, but I can tell you that I burn ~1600 on my most inactive sick days, ~1800 on a work day that has me trapped in conference rooms all day, and ~2100 if I have a standard workday with a lunchtime workout. Weekend numbers were higher even before lockdown.
  • sikorski
    sikorski Posts: 57 Member
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    @claireychn074
    Thanks for your answer. Now I have to look up what NEAT IS...
    Everybody else, thanks for answering my question, which was really a survey to help me find out whether I'm an oddball. Guess I'm an official freak! B)
  • sikorski
    sikorski Posts: 57 Member
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    Oh, I want to add that I'm not miserable or starving on 850 calories. I never let myself get "hangry." I eat mindfully so I'm enjoying what I eat and stop when I'm satisfied--well, most of the time. When I reach my goal weight I'll certainly increase my calorie count for maintenance. I take vitamins and Omega 3.
  • Mazintrov13
    Mazintrov13 Posts: 133 Member
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    I am slightly taller at 5’4 weigh 125 pounds approximately and maintain between 1900-2100 calories depending how active I am.
    My tracking is extremely accurate though I weigh and log everything that goes into my mouth down to the gram and track my weight and calories using a TDEE spreadsheet.
    Sometimes I wonder if people who say they are eating such low calorie amounts (I personally could never eat less than 1500, 1600 is the lowest I would go) are underestimating their intake. It’s VERY easy to do if your not logging accurately
  • RelCanonical
    RelCanonical Posts: 3,882 Member
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    sikorski wrote: »
    Oh, I want to add that I'm not miserable or starving on 850 calories. I never let myself get "hangry." I eat mindfully so I'm enjoying what I eat and stop when I'm satisfied--well, most of the time. When I reach my goal weight I'll certainly increase my calorie count for maintenance. I take vitamins and Omega 3.

    This is generally the case with most nutritional deficiencies - you feel fine until the body can't manage homeostasis anymore, and then it really sucks. While the body can survive a while on fat stores, it doesn't do so optimally, and then your hair starts falling out and it takes months for it to recover.
  • nooshi713
    nooshi713 Posts: 4,877 Member
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    Mazintrov13 wrote: »
    I am slightly taller at 5’4 weigh 125 pounds approximately and maintain between 1900-2100 calories depending how active I am.
    My tracking is extremely accurate though I weigh and log everything that goes into my mouth down to the gram and track my weight and calories using a TDEE spreadsheet.
    Sometimes I wonder if people who say they are eating such low calorie amounts (I personally could never eat less than 1500, 1600 is the lowest I would go) are underestimating their intake. It’s VERY easy to do if your not logging accurately


    While you’re right that some don’t track accurately, this isn’t true for all. I log very accurately, weigh more than you, and am quite active usually and maintain at a lower level than you.
  • francineb4
    francineb4 Posts: 20 Member
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    I am 5' 0'' , weigh about 112, age 52. I think it is completely safe for smaller folks to go under 1200 calories and even less. I have a friend who has dwarfism who reminds me all the time that she is only 4 inches smaller than me and she has to eat under 1000 to not gain weight.

    I find that weight training makes a TON of difference in my metabolism. When I weight train consistently at least 3 times a week, I maintain around 1900 cals/day. I lose about 1 to 1/2 lb a week at 1200-1300 while exercising. I have been a runner for 35 years and that will always be my priority exercise, but it wasn't until I started consistently weight training that I was able to get (close) to the body I wanted.
  • Strudders67
    Strudders67 Posts: 978 Member
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    I'm 5'1 and a bit and 53yo. I was losing on 1200 - took me just over two years to drop 33lb, which averages around 1.3lb a month.

    I now weigh 103lb and MFP thinks I maintain on 1340. I continued losing weight after I switched to maintenance so, after a bit of trial and error, I upped my cals by 100 a day. I'm still losing weight, albeit very very slowly. I all eat my exercise cals too.


    You may be an outlier. Or you may be logging something on a regular basis that's not quite accurate and it's skewing your results.

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